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ARGENTINA WANTS TO BOOST FOOTWEAR EXPORTS
MARCH/APRIL 2012 | www.footwearbiz.com
T
he vice-president of the Argentinean Footwear
Association (CIC), Sergio Panossian, and the
organisation’s general secretary, Horacio Moschetto,
began the year with a meeting with the minister for
overseas trade, Beatriz Paglieri, telling her that the country’s
footwear manufacturers were aiming to produce 125 million
pairs in 2012, 8.5% more than in the previous year. They
asked her to consider setting up a new footwear arrangement
with Brazil. For the last three years, Argentina has limited the
number of shoes that have come across the border from its
larger neighbour, to 15 million pairs in 2009, 14.2 million pairs
in 2010 and, with final figures still to become clear, a similar
number estimated for 2011. CIC would like to put a similar
arrangement in place for 2012 and beyond.
Another topic of conversation was a request from CIC that
the government help Argentinean footwear manufacturers to
boost their exports. The organisation said Argentina had only
exported two million pairs in 2011, although it noted an
increase in demand in overseas markets for higher-end made-
in-Argentina footwear, including specialist boots for polo, shoes
for dancing the tango (especially popular in Japan, apparently)
and high-end fashion shoes for the Australian market. At the
end of the meeting, Horacio Moschetto said it had been
“excellent and very productive”.
Local needs
The ministry of industry has said that its policies of
controlling imports are helping the local industry meet the
needs of the Argentinean market. In addition to the policy
governing imports from Brazil, antidumping measures on
shoes from China mean importers have to pay the customs
authorities $13.38 for each pair they bring in from there. In an
earlier footwear plan announced at the end of March 2011,
the ministry said it aimed to help the local industry produce
200 million pairs by 2020 and export 50 million of them
(creating 12,000 new jobs in the process). Total output of 200
million pairs seems achievable by the end of the decade, if
annual growth of 8.5% continues (there is no certainty it will,
of course); the increase from 2002 to 2011 represents growth
of 153%.
Exports have increased too over this period but, at 1.7% of
the total output, the target of 25% seems a long way off. A
focus on the internal market means shoe imports decreased
in volume by 10% in 2011 compared to the year before, with
the total reaching 24.8 million pairs. This means Argentinean-
manufactured shoes supplied 82% of the country’s footwear
needs of 137.8 million pairs (around 3.4 pairs per person).
Follow-up comments that Horacio Moschetto has given to
World Footwear
suggest that high demand from Argentinean
consumers is the main reason why only two million out of 115
million pairs of shoes made in the country in 2011 went to
customers overseas. “There has been an enormous increase
in the national demand for shoes,” he says. Mr Moschetto
makes it clear that CIC views an increase in export trade as
“fundamental for the growth of the sector”. His organisation is
working hard to raise the profile of Argentinean footwear in
external markets and to promote exports, he says, and to make
sure that a higher proportion of the domestic footwear
industry’s output leaves the country in future. The institution
has organised overseas trade missions in the recent past and
encouraged Argentinean footwear brands to take part in
exhibitions in other countries. Examples that the general
secretary offers include special show-room events for
Argentinean shoes in Chile and Peru, and participation in
exhibitions in Germany, China, Colombia, the US and Italy.
Since 2007, CIC has also played a part in arranging for
groups of international buyers to attend the EFICA footwear
exhibition, which takes place each year in Buenos Aires with
summer editions in January or February and winter ones in
July or August. Footwear buyers from Bolivia, France, the UK,
Ecuador, Japan and Norway have been participants at recent
events. Principal export destinations for Argentina’s footwear
brands at the moment are Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Brazil and
Bolivia in their own region, and beyond that the United States.
Targeting lucrative markets in Asia and Australia is part of the
policy to expand the reach of the country’s footwear exports,
even if polo boots for China and tango shoes for Japan seem
unusual ideas at first glance.
Sport of kings and gentlemen
Of the 77 countries in which people regularly play polo now,
Argentina is one of only a handful in which there are
professional players. The game in China is amateur for the
moment, but is attracting a following among the newly wealthy
in big municipalities such as Beijing and Shanghai (see panel).
The boots are typically riding boots that come to just below the
wearer’s knee, leaving room for separate protective knee-pads.
An expensive product, polo boots by brands such as Bautista
Representatives of Argentina’s footwear
industry have met with the country’s
minister for external trade, Beatriz
Paglieri, to disc
uss aims for 2012.
Argentina wants to
boost footwear exports